by Calculated Risk on 12/16/2012 08:47:00 PM

On Monday, at 8:30 AM ET, the NY Fed will release the Empire State Manufacturing Survey for December. The consensus is for a reading of 0, up from minus 5.2 in November (below zero is contraction).

Weekend:
• Summary for Week Ending Dec 14th
• Schedule for Week of Dec 16th

The Asian markets are mixed tonight, with the Nikkei up 1.5% following the election of the new government: Japan’s new government to get aggressive

From CNBC: Pre-Market Data and Bloomberg futures: the S&P futures are up 7 and DOW futures are up 60.

Oil prices still moving sideways with WTI futures at $86.88 per barrel and Brent at $108.23 per barrel. Gasoline prices are now near the low for the year.

Here is a graph from Gasbuddy.com showing the roller coaster ride for gasoline prices. If you click on "show crude oil prices", the graph displays oil prices for WTI, not Brent; gasoline prices in most of the U.S. are impacted more by Brent prices.

Orange County Historical Gas Price Charts Provided by GasBuddy.com

Two more questions this week for the December economic prediction contest (Note: You can now use Facebook, Twitter, or OpenID to log in).